February 11, 2013

Working in the FeLV+ room

Hi kitties and friends. Yesterday, I went out to the UN-Cats sanctuary to do some reiki work with the kitties. UN-Cats is a sanctuary for FIV+ and FeLV+ cats (and the occasional "others" that seem to wander into our midst) and work with TNR programs and low cost spay/neuter. The Daddy and I have done some volunteer work with them over the past couple years and this is where Tipp came to us from. Anyway, as I am furthering work with Animal Reiki and Flower Essences, what better place to do some work.

Soleil

I spent some time working with the FIV+ and non-infected kitties, but I spent the majority of my time in the FeLV+ room. There was the normal rucus of eating, drinking, climbing, pooping, etc... and Miss Soleil jumped up on my shoulder almost right away. She and Beatrice are, toward me anyway, the most overtly affectionate and it was a interesting start to things with Soleil on a shoulder and Beatrice all over my lap. But we got started and in a few minutes, it all got pretty quiet.

Beatrice

I could sense that from time to time, the cats moved in and out of the immediate area, the girls hopped down, and someone, Lopcee, came to sit beside me. Mostly, I heard a lot of purring and quiet. It's hard not to just look around and see who is doing what, but I have to just trust that they are taking what they need and are in the space where they want to be. After about 40 minutes, we seemed to be done.

Nei-How

As I looked around Nei-How, a beautiful Meezer had curled up in a bed and was looking at me, posing with one paw over the edge and an elegant face resting gently on it. A little black girl had made her way from the bed she started in to a spot by my feet and was asleep on a bit of blanket there. A floofy black kitty was sitting above my head on top of a cat tree, looking down like "king of the world", and a ginger tabby tom was sitting nearby on a shelf. And it was still very quiet.

Lopcee

Lopcee, had moved up to the arm of the couch on the other side of me and was looking out the window. Now I'm not an animal communicator, but it felt like he was very sad. Not hopeless, but more of a "why am I here" "what did I do wrong". I gave his chin a scritch, my way of saying that it was ok and that he was in a good and safe place and would be taken care of. He sat for another minute and then went across the room to sit on a tree by the door.

The room began to get a bit more active, and a little playful. I can't wait to get to know all of the kitties in this group by name, as I think I will be spending a lot of time with them. They need it. They are beautiful souls who just happen to have a disease that keeps them from enjoying a forever home with non-positive cats. If I didn't already have the boys, a couple would be going home with me right away. But they are lucky, because a couple of women, Mandie and Amy thought enough that there should be a safe and caring place for them to be and become their forever home if need be. This is a real special group and I'll be really honored to spend more time with them.

I went to all the water bowls and gave them some flower essence drops, to help them not feel so abandoned and alone, and to bring joy to their world. As I was leaving, I started to reach out to give Lopcee one last scritch, and I got a lingering headbonk to my hand instead. Don't worry Lopcee... I'll be back next week.

Oh this is marvellous. It's wonderful to see well run sanctuaries for FIV+ and FeLv cats. Over here in the UK these cats have a hard time because many vets and many cat rescue organisations still advocate killing us all!! There is one little sanctuary we support called Catwork who started in the 90s and they have done marvellous work in showing what good lives these cats can live with proper care and education for the vets and carers. If you want to take a look you can see them here:-

http://www.v63.net/catsanctuary/sanctuary.html

Barbara Hunt gave my Mum loads of support when I turned up, I have FIV and the vets recommended I be sent off this mortal coil, even though I am fit and healthy. Barbara gave my Mum a shed load of info to counter the vets' arguments!

Big props to you for helping we positive cats, we need every advocate we can get!

We'll go check out Catwork, we love to see other good works in action. We are so happy that your mom didn't listen to those vets and gived you a forever home. You'll show them! You'll live a long and happy life! Paws up!Harry, Dexter and Tipp

Poor things! Its hard enough to find a home without having health issues too. We had a FeLV+ kitty and none of the other cats came down with the disease. So we wonder if it is safe to own some of each kind, so long as none are kittens with underdeveloped immune systems.

It's hard to say. The reading I've done has been mixed, but I do know that kittens are most susceptible to the illness, and some think that it takes prolonged exposure to become infected, especially if the other cats have been vaccinated. I'm just not sure enough to take that step. So this is what I can do to love them all.

You know... my mama had that. She got it after my litter mates and I were born and in the house but before the peeps were able to get her in (we were feral). I had two younger sibs, Alexander and Josephine, who had it too. The peeps took extra special care of my mama and Alex and Josie for as long as we were all priviledged to have them with us. Now they're all up in Heaven but I think of them lots and miss 'em. purrs

We've actually had a few FeLV kittens test positive but then months later test negative (mom was positive, but they developed antibodies). It's not always that way for certain, but it's wonderful when we see it happen. Thank you for caring for them! We work with a lot of the FIV+ kitties, adopting them out at our shelter. We take all the ones in that we can from the state of KS since it's illegal for a shelter to adopt FIV+ cats in that state. (working to change that, too!)

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We're four fun lovin' kitties living "up north" in the Michigan mitten. We're near the home of the National Cherry Festival, and there are orchards around us efurry where! We live with our Mom and Dad on Red Trillium Farm where we enjoy a variety of nature channels on our big screen tv windows, and where the nip grows wild and free....